Racial Profiling is Alive and Well and Your Favorite Retail Chains Got the Memo.

Lately, there have been more and more stories about racial profiling in high end department stores like Barneys and Macys. You may have heard about the Trayvon Christian and Kayla Phillips' incidents while shopping in Barneys. But recently, even actor Rob Brown of the show Treme has shared his experience with racial profiling while shopping.

According to Brown, after buying a Movado watch in Macy's, he was handcuffed and officers insisted he was using a stolen credit card (with no actual proof or reason for suspicion, mind you.) Even after checking his wallet for various forms of ID, they insisted his ID "was false and that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase." It appears that regardless of what some people would like to believe, racial profiling is still happening every day. Is it so hard to believe black people can earn and save money to buy luxury items? And should it be OK to get arrested for using your own money to buy something... just because you're black? I want to go out on a limb here and say "certainly fucking not." :)

Rev. Al Sharpton called for a boycott of Barneys, saying "We've went from stop-and-frisk to shop-and-frisk." And frankly, he's right. If African Americans (and other minority groups for that matter) will not be welcomed into stores and allowed to have pleasant, customer service driven experiences, then it seems like those establishments don't deserve our support or money. I'm tired of this shit. And I'm tired of hearing excuses from these huge corporations, instead of apologies. This is a serious matter.

Soon after the Barneys incident was reported, people called for Jay-Z, who recently signed a deal with Barneys (to launch his new Shawn Carter watch collection) to back out of the deal and stop doing business with them. He of course wasn't having any of that, because regardless of where Jay-Z is from, he is a businessman first. Lord knows if he was a young black man and tried to shop at Barneys like Trayvon Christian did, he'd be at risk of being racially profiled too. But he doesn't have to worry about that anymore, and frankly, he doesn't give a damn. The money is the motive, and Jay-Z is no social activist. Yea it would have been great if he addressed the situation and put some pressure on high end retail chains, but we can't depend on celebrities to create social change. We have to fight these issues as a society and take nothing less than what we deserve, which is equality for all.  

My fiancé and I were recently on 5th avenue in New York, and decided to go to the Versace store. I really just wanted to check out the Versus Versace line and see if they had any of M.I.A.'s collection there. Plus, it's nice seeing great quality clothes in person. I mean, it's Versace. So we're looking through everything and going on different floors and I can't help but notice we have a shadow. I'm thinking they must be giving us great customer service. I'm sure everyone has their own salesperson assisting them through the store. Then we got off on a floor that had two white gentlemen...all by their lonesome. It was right then that I realized she wasn't following us to assist us, she was following us because she had to...because we were black. And however nice she was, it didn't change the fact that we were being treated differently based on our race. Yet again, I'm sick if this shit. 

Things need to change. But racial profiling will continue to be an issue until the masses take it seriously and acknowledge it as an issue. No more sweeping things under the rug and projecting the blame on other parties until it is no longer your problem. Its time to get real and start treating people the way they deserve to be treated. It's also time to admit that racism still exists.....we can figure it out from there. Because this, my nigga, is getting old.

Peace.